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Connor McDavid can sign a new contract with the Edmonton Oilers as soon as this Tuesday, July 1 — but based on general manager Stan Bowman's comments over the weekend, it looks like it will take much longer than that to get a new deal hammered out.
Bowman confirmed that talks haven't yet begun with the National Hockey League's best player.
“We’re very eager to do that whenever they’re ready,” Bowman said on Saturday, per NHL.com's Derek Van Diest. “I think Connor has earned the right to choose when he wants to get into the details of it and we’re ready right now, he knows that. He’s right that July 1 is a date where we can officially sign him to a contract, but besides that, it’s just another date and it doesn’t really change the process at all.”
The GM added: “We haven’t talked to him at all about his contract, it’s really just been talking to him about our team and how we can improve and what he sees and that kind of stuff. So, the conversations haven’t even started as far as a contract.”
McDavid will play out the final season of his current contract in 2025-26, which will pay the captain $12.5 million. The Oilers currently have just $12 million in cap space after sending Evander Kane and his $5.125 million cap hit to the Vancouver Canucks.
And they'll need to get star defenseman Evan Bouchard locked up; he'll be a restricted free agent on Tuesday.
Oilers' Connor McDavid in ‘no rush' to address contract
In his end-of-season media availability back on June 19, McDavid made it clear he was in no rush to make a decision on his future beyond this upcoming season.
“It's only been a couple days since the season ended,” the 28-year-old said. “Take some time to regroup, talk to my agent a little bit and family and all that. Make some decisions whenever that time comes. There's no rush. No rush on anything like that.”
McDavid signed an eight-year, $100 million contract back in July of 2017. It's been widely speculated that he will sign a shorter-term contract this time around, potentially in the three-to-four year range.
After losing to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight campaign, McDavid made it clear his only goal is to have his name engraved on Lord Stanley.
“Winning would be at the top of the list. It's the most important thing,” he said. “If I feel like there's a good window to win here over and over again, then signing is no problem. But again, I'm not in a rush to make any decision. So I don't think there needs to be any timeline. I know people are going to look at that July 1 day and be looking to see if there's anything done, but for me, I'm just not in a rush that way.”
McDavid has played 11 full seasons with Edmonton since being selected No. 1 overall in the 2015 NHL Draft. He admitted he still has “unfinished business” with the Oilers, but it's certainly noteworthy that player and club haven't even spoken about a new contract.
It'll be interesting to see if the two sides will be able to get something done between now and training camp this fall.
